


Cosmos

by Sammichbot



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: F/M, I have no idea how a Space Academy would work, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Pre-Vice Quadrant, Space Academy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-15 19:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8069632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sammichbot/pseuds/Sammichbot
Summary: Dwight had always dreamed of seeing the stars up close. Some stars shine brighter then others, and some more close to earth then he had anticipated.





	1. No One Can Hear You Scream

He felt the tremors coursing through his body as the ship violently jerked back as it was hit. In the back of his mind he could have sworn he heard a message being broadcasted to the ship as his hands scrambled frantically as he searched for the radio to send his reply message down to earth. The lights in the chamber darkened as a shrill alarm rang out and the lights flashed red. His hands were trembling as he held the headset up to his ear, using his free hand to open up the communication pathway.

The alarm continued to blare out as the entire compartment began to shake. The man nearly crashed into the side paneling as the alarm seemed to get louder and louder until it was almost deafening. He gasped out as he looked up at the emergency vitals that had appeared in a bright red text on the screen, oxygen levels...depleting...he felt his breath catch in his chest as a wave of anxiety pulsed through him. He felt lightheaded as he frantically tried to grab onto any of the bars around him to keep himself from spiraling into a wall. The ship began to turn as he stayed near fixed in place.  


Emergency training at the academy could never prepare you for the real thing.

He tried to run through the emergency proceedures in his mind. They were hit...he needed to suit up and get out of the ship...needed to see what he could do to fix it...his vision swam temporarily as he tried to settle his breathing. Everything felt light...it was getting lighter...

He gasped softly into the headset as his fingers loosened around the bar, his legs already picking off as he tried to yell...tried to scream.  
He heard a message reply from ground control as his own headset fizzled as his connection was cut off. His head spun, his breath was knocked out of him as his body broke free from the bar and shot to the opposite wall. He couldn't scream as his body barreled backwards; faster and faster until he saw the side of the ship and he collided with a hard bang.

\---

He sat up in bed with a gasp. His heart was pounding as he became more aware of his surroundings and the cold sweat that soaked through his thin cotton t-shirt. 

This was his room...

It was his dorm at the academy to be precise...so that was a dream? He held up and studied his own hand; it was shaking and clammy, he reached up and placed his hand on his head as he fell back against his bed with a soft thump. His chest felt like it was on fire as he worked to calm his breathing. His other hand gripped the covers until his knuckles turned white. He was afraid to let go of his hold on what he knew was real. He wouldn't risk getting sucked back into that nightmare.

Just a dream...

He stared up at the darkness of his ceiling as he felt his breathing slowing down. He turned to the side and clicked the button of his lamp on, wincing as it illuminated the previously dark room. He glanced around studying the items of his dorm. Stacks of books, pens, papers...the occasional t-shirt hastily discarded on his floor, his jumpsuit strewn haphazardly over his desk chair...

It really was just a dream. 

Why the hell did it seem so damn real.

Why did he feel unease...like he had lost something incredibly important.


	2. Stop My Mind, I Want to Get Off

Steven Dwight groaned as he sat back at his seat in Lecture Hall C. Today couldn't have gone any slower if it had tried. He had no luck getting back to sleep after the nightmare and instead chose to stay up and carefully review and study his emergency situations handbook...In great detail...fifteen times. 

In the end he had fallen asleep on his notes, drooling on several pages and woke up to a face covered in scribbles from his highlighter. Not exactly the most plesent situation, and a few other cadets had a good laugh at him on the way to the showers.

He rubbed his eyes as he heard someone taking the seat a step down from his own. People were beginning to filter in from the mess hall for the first instruction of the day. He didn't care...he was too tired to care. Maybe he could sneak in a nap if he stacked his books in a good enough manner to hide his face from the instructor...

"Looks like someone had a rough night." he recognized the voice from the first word alone and immediately snapped out of his drowsy stupor as he uncovered his eyes and sat up in his seat.

"A-ah! Mr.Walter..." he said as he tried a salute, only managing his flailing arms in an odd formation before he accidentally smacked himself in the face. "And...its nothing...I couldn't sleep is all...no detrimental nightmares about dying in space...nope...none whatsoever." 

The man opposite him laughed as he shook a hand.

"You really don't have to be formal with me you know, Peter is just fine." he smiled. "Nightmares are a pretty regular thing you know...its a big place up there, no shortages of things that could kill you or go wrong. In fact, for as much as we prepare missions are still more likely to fail then not." He said with a smirk.

"Wonderful." Steven sighed and held his head on the table. 

Peter gave out another small laugh and Steven felt his heart pound deeply in his chest as he listened to the sound as it resonated through his ears. He looked down at the young man in front of him.

Peter Walter the Fourth of the Walter Robotics Company. Walter. That was a name everyone in this small town knew. The singing robots of Colonel Peter A Walter were famous around these parts. He came from a long line of inventors and while a lot of knowledge of this particular family were kept from the public, everyone knew of the stylings of the wonderful singing automatons who were invented by the first Peter Walter in 1896. 

It was no surprise that one of the Walters had enrolled in the academy for space travel and exploration. The Walters were brilliant as far as technology would go, and Peter the Fourth was proof of that. He was perfect at near everything he did at the academy; He could fix any broken machine in a minute or less and could maneuver his way around any issue that the academy drilled them on and turn up in the top five...no...top three for the task. Hell, at 25 he was already on the fast track to becoming the commander of his own ship, and depending on how training went, he could very well be on the next ship up. He had a clear, steady voice, perfectly understandable in emergencies. Hell, Steven would listen to it for hours even without emergency...the cool collect sound of Peter Walter the Fourth...his eyes shining...hair was perfect without even trying...tall...handsome too...

Where was he going with that?

He turned red as his attention was snapped away as he looked down to the Instructor at the front of the hall, already pulling up spreads over the board and highlighting several points of interest on it. 

Peter was turned forward, intently copying the highlighted material as smoothly as anyone could write. 

He had to pull himself out of his thoughts while he could, quietly opening up his book as he tried to catch up to the rest of the class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cant write for anything~~
> 
> There are only snippets about Peter IV so I'm trying to make sense of what little info there is lol
> 
> I know the name Steven is never mentioned in any SPG lore or anywhere else. The name came from when I attended the Steampunk World's Fair this past May and I went to the autograph session on Sunday dressed as Flight Engineer Dwight. I was getting my VQ cd signed by Isabella and she said something like "Oh, cosplaying Steven Dwight!" So I'm guessing that was his name? If this could be argued please let me know asap xD


	3. Food for Thought

"So...how long have you been having these space related nightmares?"

Steven jolted as his attention was pulled from the various sandwich choices in the mess hall. He turned around and almost jumped as he saw Peter standing beside him, a clipboard full of papers casually rested under his arm, and in his hands was a metal lunch tray.

"What? Who told you that I..." He blanked for a moment in his panic. "Oh...I guess I did..." he groaned as he smacked his head. "Its...a bit complicated...I wouldn't want to bore you with any of it."

Peter shrugged, overlooking him as he casually leaned forward, brushing against his arm as he reached into a lowered container holding apples. Steven could have sworn he felt his chest tightening up at the brief contact between the two men. He blinked a few times as Peter picked out what he wanted and set it onto his waiting tray.  
"Aint nothin boring 'bout space disasters Dwight." He said calmly. "To put it off as boring means your underestimating the dangers of space. Honestly I trust a man who fears whatever is lurking up there." 

"I...I'm absolutely terrified of it then!" Steven blurted out to a slightly shocked Peter who only after a moment started laughing at the outburst.

"Well then I know who I can trust then." he smiled as Steven's face turned a deeper shade of red. "I'm just teasing you. But in all honesty if this is becoming a regular issue for you, you need to decide what you're going to do in the long run. We have to make up mock teams for the practice mission and if word gets out that you aren't prepared you can kiss any shot you got at the Cosmo goodbye. Reviewing the safety booklet is something you should take a look at...maybe a refresher course too. I noticed you weren't paying that much attention in the last lecture either, maybe I can help you with some of the material, wouldn't mind putting some of those fears to bed too. Heck, forget putting the fears to bed, maybe I should just put you there."

"T-to b-bed? I mean...you noticed that?" he said awkwardly as he tried to pull the attention away from his stuttering as much as possible.

"I'm sure if I was on a shuttle I could hear you snoring from space!" he laughed and Steven gasped at the implications.

"I was snoring?" He asked, his eyes wide at the thought of the entire class having a good laugh at his expense. 

"Well that mighta been a bit off...but I saw you nodding off once or twice." He said as he took a few steps. "Either way my offer stands, come find me after you finish setting up." He reached over into the compartment and grabbed another apple before putting it onto Steven's tray. "Works better then coffee, and you're gonna need it." 

Steven watched as Peter walked away. He swallowed as he looked down at the fruit on his tray as he sighed. 

"Looks like it..."


	4. Crushed

Steven didn't want to think of it...or maybe he just didn't want to admit it, but from the first moment he stepped into the academy he felt like the wind had been knocked straight out of him.

He remembered orientation like it was only yesterday. Truth be told he had already been in the academy for the past several months but he felt like this was something that was just going to stick in his mind.

When he had come into the academy he didn't know what to expect. He told himself that he would be cool and collect about being accepted into such a prestigious training facility. Upon arrival he had seen and said hello to a few of his classmates from the engineering school he had come from, several staff members that he had met at an open house just months before his arrival, professors who were talking to students and a few groups getting set up to tour the facility...and him.

When Steven Dwight saw him for the first time he could have sworn that the moment froze in time. He knew who he was of course, he had seen projects and thesis' put forth by this man on space travel as well as a picture or two here and there in local papers or maybe featured on the academy's website. He was a brilliant man who had already served in the Marine Corps and despite being in his early 20's he was already on the fast track to becoming a commander for the up and coming space exploration and survey missions. Seeing him in person was an experience that he felt was ironically, out of this world. 

Peter Walter the Fourth was...well...Steven decided "handsome" wasn't even an accurate starting point of a description. He was tall, hair somewhat whispy (Steven had found himself curious of the texture...it couldn't have felt as soft as it looked could it?). His eyes seemed to shine as he conversed with a few new recruits to the academy about what he could only imagine as relevant to the training that the academy offered, as he continuously gestured to a few different areas of the building, down corridors and towards the main atrium.

Steven hadn't even realized that he had been standing there staring at this other man until someone accidentally knocked into him and he almost dropped the incoming engineer forms the academy had issued to him. Even then he could only see Peter Walter, the smile on his face, his white grin and the squint of his eyes as he smiled.

Steven wasn't exactly sure what came over him. Standing there he was almost bumped into again and he decided that maybe this wasn't the best place to start to question these new and unusual to him, feelings. He remembered leaving as quickly as possible to find another area to explore before he had made a spectacle of himself (which he hadn't done, but why risk it happening at all?).

The next few weeks at the academy had been especially hard. His sleep schedule was royally screwed up by 5am training courses, his eating habits seemed to diminish as he sometimes would be so preoccupied by studying that he would almost completely forget to actually eat, and to make matters worse, he shared several training classes with the man who seemed to occupy his idling thoughts.

He wasn't surprised. Steven was proud of the fact that he was intelligent enough to qualify for advanced engineering and was one of the top twentyfive candidates for one of the future planned satellite launchings. That was something he personally had striven for ever since he had started studying engineering...however being such a potential candidate put him in a position to work aside Peter Walter the Fourth.

Steven wasn't shocked. He thought it would suit Peter perfectly. He was stern with a clear voice, very informative and forgiving while he was still able to deliver constructive criticism while pushing for a positive outcome to any issue. He was caring and listened as much as he spoke, and when he did speak, oh did Steven get lost in that voice...where was he going with that? He had to stop letting his mind get ahead of him...

He didn't want to admit that he had developed a pretty brutal crush on the aspiring commander. He tried to keep his distance, but always failed. They shared an advanced engineering and robotics course so the chances of avoidance were close to zero as the courses progressed.

"Here...try holding your hand slightly raised as you solder the two wires, don't lean your elbows on the table. It'll limit your range of movement." Peter would say as he would hold Steven's hand in his own as he showed him a more comfortable way to work. 

"That's an amazing mechanism...its super lightweight but it has enough force and pressure of a machine twice its size! Amazing Dwight!" he told him once as he slapped his shoulder in a congratulation manner during Mechanics C25.

"Hey I saw you dropped your set of drivers in the last class. Make sure you're eating enough. I don't need you to black out on me during a mission." he would laugh and joke at the engineer.

Steven felt like an awkward teenager with a strange crush. Every day seemed to get worse as he scrambled to study for exams. On the other hand, the off comments about him eating properly had actually gotten him back onto a decent routine when it came to eating, and his back was hurting a lot less after Peter had helped him figure out the issues with his form while working on communications and mechanisms within the test shuttles...still.

He wasn't sure what to think. Peter Walter was a genuinely good man and he felt pretty dumb for thinking of him in any way other then professionally, and Steven felt farther and farther from himself the more he admitted that his feelings were growing more then just fondness.

He knew it wasn't going anywhere, but time opened room for hope, but the longer he hoped the harder he knew his world was going to come crashing down.


	5. Nothing More

Steven finished paying for his food as he entered the main mess hall. He looked around the large open area for Peter; eyes darting from one table to another as he searched for him. He would try to keep his cool as he looked around for the other man, he didn't want to seem to eager, which he wondered if it looked at all like he was. He was just a little excited to actually have help from him. Nothing more then that. He was just...really psyched to see those numbers from class...that's what he told himself. Nothing more... 

He made his way over as he sat down at the table across from Peter, who was looking over a few notes from the prior class; his apple in his hand though it appeared that Peter had gotten so distracted with his notes that he had forgotten the need to actually eat.

Steven tried to be quiet as he put his tray down and pulled out his binder from his bag. He set it down and waited patiently as Peter flipped through some pages.  
After a few minutes passed Steven began to feel a bit more awkward as he sat there. Maybe Peter was only joking about helping him and Steven was just making a fool of himself as he sat across from the other man. He looked around and saw a few people at other tables were looking over only to turn away with what looked like laughter in their eyes. Steven felt himself growing anxious as he looked back at Peter...maybe he should...

"...Sir?" He asked quietly as he saw Peter Tapping his fingers on the table, eyes focused on the papers in front of him. "...Peter?" he asked again, a little louder this time as it seemed to register to the other man as he jumped in his seat, nearly dropping his apple as he did. Steven gasped a bit as he jumped too, surprised at the other man's quick movement. Peter looked a little spooked for a moment before he tried to laugh it off.

"Oh gosh. How long have you been here?" he asked as he put his apple down on his tray. Steven shrugged and Peter sighed. "Sorry about that...sometimes I get so engrossed that I completely lose track of everything else that there is."

"Its ok...I wasn't here that long...I didn't want to break your concentration or anything...you looked really invested."   
Peter sighed.

"Maybe...when I get invested in something I tend to make it my world..." he smiled wistfully as he flipped through his papers for the lecture notes from the last class. Steven had to remind himself to breath normally. Peter was offering him time so he wouldn't waste it acting like a love sick tween. "Anyway...here's the handout. You can copy the notes down and anything you think you might need and if you need anything explained just ask me. I might not know as much as the professor but I can give ya my two cents on it and I think it could help."

Steven took the papers gladly and smiled.

"I appreciate it all the same. You're saving me with this...really. I just had a bad night...I wont have to bother you for this again." he said as he pulled a pencil out and began to jot down any key points.

Peter brushed it off.

"Its no bother, really. The best way to review is to help others. If anything this is a big help for me as well."

"Well...if that's the case I'm glad I could help you too...even if it is in a really odd way..." Steven smiled back to Peter. He didn't know what came over the other man, but Peter just kind of stared at him for a moment. Steven blinked, had he said something wrong? He hoped not...he was just starting to feel comfortable around Peter...he didn't want to screw this up that quickly...

"Y'know Steven...you got a nice smile. You should do it more often. You eyes light up an' everything." Peter smiled.

Steven gulped as he quickly focused on the notes in front of him, not wanting to embarrass himself further. He was sure if he continued to look at Peter while he was talking that way about him he might do or say something stupid.

The two men sat in silence as they both flipped through their texts, occasionally jotting down a number or two...a calculation...a footnote on the original text book followed by dog ear-ing the book to tack the progress. Every so often Steven would look up to Peter and find the man looking over his notes, looking up to him as if trying to be more conscience of the fact that there was another man at the table who might need his help. Occasionally, Steven would ask Peter for his opinion on select parts of the notes, which Peter would offer as much information as he could.

As time passed at the table Steven felt himself becoming more and more comfortable with the other man. He would freely ask questions and they would have a few conversations that even seemed to go into topics other then the notes. Though they didn't fall into casual conversation yet, but Steven didn't mind. He was actually quite happy the way it was going. 

He finally felt a little peace...if nothing more.


End file.
